European shares dip as pharmaceuticals' earnings weigh

By Julien Ponthus

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares dipped on Wednesday as poor corporate earnings in the pharmaceutical sector weighed on sentiment soured by trade tensions, with Washington preparing tariffs on another $16 billion of Chinese goods.

At 0910 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 <.STOXX> was down 0.2 percent with the European healthcare index <.SXDP> leading losers, down 0.9 percent.

Trading updates from Danish drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Lundbeck disappointed investors and their shares fell 5.2 percent and 8.7 percent respectively.

Britain's UDG Healthcare also took a hit, down 5.8 percent after flagging weakness at its contract sales and patient support services segment.

Other blue-chip results also weighed, with Dutch food retailer Ahold Delhaize (NYSE: AD) down 1.9 pct and heavyweight miner and trader Glencore retreating 1.6 percent.

Italian bank BPER Banca lost 5.6 percent, with one analyst citing disappointing quarterly interest income.

French supermarket chain Casino shed 8.5 percent after broker Bernstein cut the stock to "underperform".

Among better received trading updates, Nokian Tyres jumped 3 percent after beating earnings expectations and Dutch bank ABN Amro also added 3 percent after reporting second-quarter profits.

Overall, STOXX 600 second-quarter earnings are seen as encouraging and are expected to increase 9.9 percent from the same period last year, Thomson Reuters data shows.

A U.S. strong earnings season has also fueled optimism about economic strength there, with S&P 500 firms seeing a 23.5 percent rise in their April-June profits, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by John Stonestreet)

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